Little Mistakes, Big Consequences
by DreamStoryWeaver
Summary: A challenge brought to you by Miaraluc! Based on Honey I Shrunk the Kids. A group of teenagers have sneaked their way into Castle Wyvern in order to snap a photo of a live gargoyle to win a  6000 dollar prize. However, their little endeavor turns deadly.
1. Chapter 1

**Gargoyles**

**Little Mistakes, Big Consequences**

_**Manhattan Island: Oct. 30**_

"This is Charles Chatmen coming to you live from town square. Where once again the citizens of Manhattan are getting ready for its annual Halloween Fair." The news reporter announced towards the cameraman as all around them volunteers have been putting the finishing touches for the fair. "This year will feature a real special treat for the children of the city. This year the Xanatos have opened their exotic home as a haunted fun house and will be welcoming all those participating."

As the residence of the city went about decorating for the up coming holiday, none have nothing a group of six teenagers stand on the sidewalk. They seem to be observing the largest building in the city. "There it is." Ron, a dark haired teenager with jeans and a red shirt, had stated as he stood across the street and stared up at the tallest building in Manhattan Island, New York. "Xanatos Enterprises."

His best friend Patrick had stood next to him, a blonde wearing a blue shirt and jean shorts and an equally confident smirk as he admired the structure in front of them. "And somewhere up there is our prized winning picture."

"If those things really exist." They turned at the sound of their resident Goth girl, Heather, sarcastic comment.

"Of course they exist, you heard the rumors." Justin, a red head with a green shirt and black jeans, had stated in response to the girl's skepticism. "We've all seen the news."

"This is like the tallest building in all of New York." Jennifer, a young blonde in white shorts and a pink top, reminded the group as she studied over the brochure of the city. "We're else would they hide?"

"I don't know you guys…" Another teenage girl with red head with a white t-shirt and black jeans, stated nervously as she rubbed her hands together. Unlike her friends she wasn't at all looking forward to the plan they were planning on pulling. "I've got a bad feeling about this…"

"Ah, come on, Hope!" Ron exclaimed in some annoyance at his friend's hesitation. "Live up to your namesake for once and get with the program."

What had brought these fortune seekers to this part of the city was a radio contest that had been announced at the beginning of the month. The radio DJ had declared that their company would reward exactly six-thousand dollars to anyone whom can bring in a photograph of a real life gargoyle. Believing that working in numbers would better help their chances of winning, the six friends had agreed to take up the challenge together and split the winnings evenly between them.

It hadn't been long at all when the group crossed the street and entered the office building. "You guys, are you sure about this?" Hope had whispered as they all made their way over to the security desk.

"Sure, we're sure. Just stay cool and let me do all the talking." Ron had stated softly as the officer on duty soon noticed them. "Hey there. We're volunteering to help set up the haunted house for tomorrow night."

The guard glanced down at his pad to check for anything scheduled. "Hmm, you're early. I don't have you down until later in the afternoon."

"Oh, that's when the rest of the group brings in the stuff we're going to use. We're here to take measurements and layout what goes where in what room for the tour." The teenager explained smoothly while the others nodded in agreement.

"Huh, alight then." Satisfied with the explanation the guard began handing out visitor tags to the group. "Go down the hallway to the elevators and go to the top floor."

After thanking the guard, the group made their way to the elevators. Inside they exchanged a few quick high fives then went over the plan one more time. They were to search the castle both inside and out for any signs of their winged targets. If they run into anyone whom works in the castle itself, they will pretend to have gotten lost looking for the room where the haunted house was suppose to be set up. Then if they were taken the place, they would send a pair out to search while the others worked. They would rotate pairs every hour or so, that way no one will be able to suspect a thing. A perfect plan, all they needed to do was stick together and stay focused on the goal.

When the elevator doors opened, the teens had found an empty stone ballroom. Pleased, they decided to walk towards the first set of doors they found. They found themselves outside in the courtyard, which gave them the perfect opportunity to figure out where the gargoyles would most likely be.

"Alright, perfect!" Jennifer practically cheered at the surroundings. "This is so a natural playground for those things."

"Okay lets think, where would you be if you were a gargoyle in a castle in the sky?" Heather asked out loud to no one in particular.

"My money is on one of those tall towers." Patrick pointed to the nearest one as he spoke.

The idea was highly plausible and so the young team began looking for a way to get up to the wall and closer to the towers. They had managed to spend at least two hours searching but so far nothing. It wasn't before long that someone had suggested to try and search the taller towers in the inner walls. However, that brought just as little results. Then there came the idea that maybe the gargoyles might be in the tallest tower in the middle. Yet the only way to get to that particular tower was somewhere inside the castle itself. So once again, the group of teens made their way inside the ancient dwelling in search for their photo subject.

"Guys we really shouldn't be doing this." Hope declared as went from door to door looking for some stairway or private elevator that lead up. "It's trespassing and we'd-"

"Would you quit being such a chicken and just keep looking?" Heather snapped with some irritation at her friend. "This is six-thousand dollars we're talking about!"

"Be cool, Hope." Ron called over from yet another door. "We'll be out of here soon enough." As he opened his most resent door, Ron found a large room with an exellent view of the tower they were all trying to get to. "Hey guys look!" Soon enough they all came into the room and went straight for the window.

"Looks like we're getting closer." Justin guessed as he looked out through the glass for a way to get to the tower itself. "Looks like there's a garden down there, and there a door right where the tower is!"

"SSsshhh!" Jennifer shushed her friend quickly.

They had been so eager to find out how to get to the tower that they had failed to noticed the room itself. It was filled with small toys and pictures. There was a small shelf with books steed next to a rocking chair and reading lamp. Just off to the right of that was a crib with a hanging mobile that sported stars, clouds, and a moon, and just underneath of the twirling toy was a small, semi-sleepy, red headed baby boy. He stood in his cage-like bed pouting and blinking sleepily at the strangers in his room.

"Okay…" Patrick whispered carefully as he watched the baby watched them. "No body make any loud noises. Just quietly walk to the door and…" The baby had began to whimper from being woken up to soon from his nap. "No, no, don't cry!"

"Oh man…" Ron looked around for something to distract the infant. "Ah, um, Hope! You're good with kids, aren't?" He didn't even wait for an answer. "Do something to keep him quiet."

Having plenty of babysitting experience, Hope made her way over to the crib and carefully picked up the baby boy. She cradled the infant over her shoulder and tried to lure him back to sleep by rocking him and singing a lullaby. While their friend distracted the would be intruder alarm, the rest of the group quietly tried to figure out a new plan. They couldn't very well leave Hope there with the baby, they couldn't risk slitting up for fear of getting lost, and they couldn't stay in the nursery for long otherwise they might get caught. Meanwhile, the baby wasn't feeling tiered anymore. He wanted to know who was holding him and wither or not they wanted to play. The boy knew it wasn't Mommy because it was too small and because of that he knew for sure it wasn't Daddy. Yet whomever this person was she sang very nicely and he liked the way she smelled.

"Oh come on little guy." Hope cooed at the little baby that was staring up at her like an owl. "Don't you want to finish your nap?" A tiny little mouth spread into an open grin. He even giggled at her voice when it rose to that higher tone his caretakers tend to use around him. "Aren't you sleepy?"

"Yeah, Hope? I don't think that's working." Heather declared after getting sick of the boarder line baby talk that had started to form between the redhead and infant.

All at once Jennifer has gasped in alarm at the door of the nursery. "I hear someone coming!" She exclaimed just loud enough for those in the room to hear.

"Oh man!" Justin nearly yelled as he looked around franticly. "We need to hide!"

"No kidding, genius." Patrick stated as he tried to keep calm. "But where?"

A voice was soon heard coming from the hallway. It was getting closer along with the footsteps heading in their direction. In a near panic the teens tried their best to hide behind the curtains, the toy pile, the crib and the door hoping that who ever would either pass by the room or not notice them as they walked in. Baby Alex had been sat back in his crib and had been watching the big kids curiously. What were they doing? Are they playing a game? Were they all hiding so that they could play 'Surprise' with him? It had been his mother's voice that he heard coming down from the hallway. Are they playing 'Hide from Mommy'? He loved playing that game with his mother! He wanted to play too!

"Somebody get that kid to be quiet!" Ron whispered harshly to anyone close to the excitedly squealing infant. If he continued on like that, they were all sure to be discovered.

Hope had moved from her spot behind the crib and did her best to keep the baby quiet. Then she noticed the glowing around the infant. The pulsing light had grown the more the baby got excited and before anyone could react a huge flash erupted and blinded everyone. When it died down, the room was empty save for the happy little baby clapping in all his joy.


	2. Chapter 2

_**I truly am sorry for this chapter being so late. This idea turned out more difficult than I first thought and there have been some serious turns of events happening in my life that I had to put several things, including this story, on hold. I want to make it clear that I haven't abandoned any of my fics, but I will warn everyone that because of the way things are right now and since I am writing out of my usual style, there is a high probability that some stories will be on hiatus between chapters. Hopefully I can manage my time well enough again to keep up with all my tales better.**_

_**Part 2**_

It took some time for Hope to get her bearings. For some reason she had felt very dizzy and off balanced from the powerful flash of light she had seen just moments ago. She began calling out to the others as she stumbled around while rubbing at her sore eyes. It hadn't been long before she ran right into something very big, very soft, and really fuzzy. Now, even more confused than before, the redhead shook her head and was finally able to clear her blurred vision. What she saw in front of her was a wall of soft brown felt, towering will above her small stature, and just beyond that was a giant recognizable head of a sweet teddy bear.

Ron knew that he was in trouble. First he gets some kind of light flashed in his face. Then he was suddenly alone in the room and for some odd reason a surprisingly large wooden toy car was sitting right in front of him. He took a moment to question wither or not he was seeing things when a shrill of a scream had broken out from somewhere behind him. Recognizing the voice, he gets a sudden rush of adrenaline and ran like mad towards the cry and found his redheaded female friend hysterical. She was on the verge of fainting dead away, jumping and fidgeting away from what had to be the biggest stuffed bear he had even seen in his life.

"Hope!" Ron had yelled as he tried to grab the girl before she hurts herself in someway. "Hope calm down!" He finally had to settle for grabbing her by her upper arms and forcing her to look and focus on him. "Get a hold of yourself!"

The commotion they were making had attracted the rest of their group whom were just as freaked out by what they were seeing. Patrick had been lost in a city of building blocks when he heard the shouting. Justin had somehow gotten stuck on top of a jack-in-the-box, which had unexpectedly popped up and sent him flying a short distance into some play-dough, which, thankfully, was still soft enough to cushion his fall. Jennifer and Heather had gotten trapped in the folds of the window curtains and had managed to crawl out from under them when they heard Hope scream. Now that they were all together again and in relative safety they huddled around each other while they tried to calm the most affected by this unexplainable phenomena. It had taken sometime, but they had managed to calm the red head down enough to sit down on a large plastic doughnut ring.

"Okay!" Heather stated out loud as she tried to keep a cool head. "Okay, lets all get a grip here and figure things out."

"Figure things out?!" Justin half shouted as he paced back and forth in a nervous fashion. "What's there to figure out?!" He didn't like his current state in the least. Everything was too big and imposing. "We've shrunk!"

"No duh, genius!" Patrick had snapped. He was just as scared as the others, but knew that hysterics wouldn't do any of them any good right now. "The question is, how did it happen?" He had to stay calm and keep his wits about him and make sure to help the others do the same.

"This can't be happening…" Jennifer had said in complete disbelief at what she was seeing. "Maybe this is just a dream…" There was just no way that this could be real.

This brought on a rather sarcastic remark from Justin. "That we're all having?"

"Leave her alone, Justin." Patrick warned in response to his friend's current attitude. "We're all in trouble here, alright?"

Ron nodded in agreement. "And we'll all get out of it if we work together." He soon began rubbing t his chin in thought. "Now everyone think." First order of business was to try and figure out what might have caused this to happen to them in the first place. "Did anyone see anything before we've shrank?" He had been next to the door, listening for who ever had been in the hall.

"Jen and I were behind the curtains when it happened." Heather informed the group to help start the thinking process.

Justin had been next to report his position in the room. "I was behind that mountain of toys when that crazy light flashed." He remembered specifically that there had been a flash of light before finding himself on that jack-in-the-box.

"It came from behind me when I was behind the weird stroller." Patrick knew this because he had turned around and nearly slipped on the same play-dough he had fell in.

"The baby…" Hope finally spoke after silently recovering from her initial shock. "I was near the crib and trying to quiet the baby down when…" Her mind brought back the memory exactly what had happened. "His hands started to glow!"

Ron could only blink that the claim. "What?"

"The baby's hands were glowing!" The red head repeated as she insisted on what she had seen. "That's where the light came from!"

Jenifer wasn't so sure she had heard right by that statement. "Are you serious?" That sort of thing is usually found in movies, wasn't it? "What, like, magic?"

"Yes!"

"Well that makes a lot of sense." Justin stated with heavy sarcasm dripping from every word. "Did you hit your head on something?" He knew the redhead was known to be a bit paranoid when scared or nervous, but this really took the cake.

However, Patrick didn't find the idea completely far-fetched. "Aaah… Justin…" Especially when he pointed up towards the giant sized baby, glowing like a lamp and hovering right over his crib.

"No… Freaking… Way…" Heather had managed to say despite the speechless moment at hand.

With a cheerful giggle the infant began to descend right over the shrunk group. "Look out!" Ron yelled as soon as he realized exactly where the flying baby was going to land. "Scatter!"

With a yell the entire group spilt up among the nearby toys just as the magic infant touched down with a light thumb. However the vibration of the landing was strong for the tiny teens and had sent a couple of them to stumble in their sprint. At the sight of his new playmates, the red headed babe quickly gave chase and crawled after them. Seeing that there was no way for them to outrun the giant size infant's crawl, Patrick quickly hollered for everyone to run for the mountain of soft toys nearby the crib. With a happy laugh, little Alex chased after the potential new toys as they climbed and scurried into the pile of plush toys to hide. As soon as he had thumbed over to his plushies, the large babe began to grab at the first one in reach in search for the moving targets. Within the virtual cavern of fluff, fur, and felt, the young teens were able to maneuver through to the other side without being spotted by the distracted infant. Justin immediate pointed out the toy castle that was obviously designed to open like a dollhouse. Seeing that the plastic drawbridge was down, the group rushed for it and took shelter within the made up grand hall. Meanwhile they could hear and feel the heavy steps of something very large sending vibration through the ground.

_**Hallway**_

Ms. Fox Xanatos has had a busy day. Receiving the food order for tomorrow night's event and double-checking their quota. Meeting the young volunteer decorators at the lobby and showing them which wing would be used for the haunted house. Collaborating with Owen on the security layout in order to keep out unwanted guests and make sure no one went anywhere they shouldn't and double-checking on the number of guest, servers, media personal, and guards for the grounds. Thank goodness for her darling husband, David, who had agreed to watch their son through the day. Since he could easily conduct his business from his office while watching their baby, it had given her the freedom to handle everything else for this holiday event. Such out of the way charities are always good publicity to have, especially when you're as well known as they were. She had been especially pleased when the visiting students had already marked out the trick-or-treating path with bright colored sticker arrows and had at least a team of four in each room working on a different theme. The preparations for the open house had been steady and would be done in an impressively timely manner. Fox had been so impressed that she made sure that each team had been treated to some baked treats on top of what they had brought for lunch. Those kids had good heads on their shoulders and will go far in life if they continue this kind of work ethic. There have been a near incident when one of the security guard had asked about a group of kids that had came earlier but weren't there anymore, but it had soon been dismissed when one of the teams informed her that some of their friend didn't bring food with them and simply left to grab a bite to eat.

After putting her son down for his nap, Fox had taken the time to leave home and pick up the custom made costumes she had ordered for David and herself. She figured Owen would either change into Puck for the party tomorrow, dress as a squire, or paint and dress in stone gray so that he could just blend in his stone arm with the of him. It ought to make for some interesting reactions when he breaks his steadfast posture to carry out a request. As for the rest of their 'residences', chances are they will either come as they are or the youngsters will at least dress up for the occasion. Keeping track of the time while finishing a few more errands, she had returned home to find that the volunteers had been putting up the finishing touches on each of the rooms. She congratulated them on a job well done and rewarded them further by giving them special passes that will allow them to be first in line for the buffet line that was going to be set up during the festivities.

After checking to see if the bowls of sweets for tomorrow where all accounted for in each room, Fox was now on her way towards the nursery to check on her baby. With any luck he was still napping and would be easier to move him into their personal living room where his nocturnal sitter was currently perched. Yet as she approached closer and closer to the nursery, she began hearing the delight giggles and squeals on her dear special child. Sounds like her son was wide-awake and most likely very active. Thank goodness she had Puck magically seal the windows so that her precious baby couldn't fly out of them. He only just begun to levitate after all and she would very much rather not have her infant trying to follow his favorite playmate out into the night.

_**Nursery**_

As the group of teen did their best to hide from their large pursuer, soon enough the door opened to reveal a giant, redheaded woman in a blue shirt and black jeans entering the room. "Heh, hey, what's so fun in here?" Fox laughed as she made her way to the toddler on the floor, whom at the moment was trying to crawl over his plushie winged bear. "Alex, did you floated out of your crib again?" With a few steps of her massive strive, she reached her giggling child and lifted him up into her arms. "You silly boy." The mother could only laugh herself as she nuzzled her little boy.

While the mother and child bonded over their hug, the teens could only stare from the safety of their hiding spot. "Did she just ask the baby if he _'floated'_ out of his crib again?" Heather had asked after getting over how much larger the mother was compared to her baby from their new perspective.

"Yeah." A breathless Hope had managed to say in between gasps. "So?"

"So, it means he does it all the time!" Justin half shouted in realization. Which meant that the baby really had to have been the one that shrunk them all before. "Maybe he can change us back as well." With that in mind the group raced out, yelling and calling out in the hopes of getting the mother's attention.

However, for all the commotion they were making, it went unheard by the longhaired woman. "Now come on." Fox chatted with her little son as she began to turn around and walk towards the door. "It's almost nightfall, and you know who comes to visit when it gets dark." Within no time she reached the open door and turned to the left down the hall.

"Wait!" Jenifer had yelled loudly after the giant woman as she easily reached the frame of the door. "Wait, come back!" However all her cries were left unheard as Ms. Xanatos left the room without pause. "Help!"

"It's no good, she can't hear us!" Heather had stated as she kept pace with all her friends towards the open door. "Our voices are too small!"

This only spurred Ron to run faster and encourage the others to do the same. "Then keep running!" The door was wide open, which shouldn't slow them down in the least if they keep up the pace. "We can't lose them!" If they can at least make sure to see which way the lady turned while walking than they should be able to keep up until the find a way to get her attention.

_**Hallway**_

The stone floor proved to be more rugged terrain than they all first thought. The old stone held small ridges and crevasses that might as well been craters and deep ravines to the shrunken teenagers. Not to mention that the grooves in between the stones were practically deep ditches that were easier to get into than out of. Thankfully the happy mother was made to slow down because she was playing with her dear child by lifting him up and down and sometimes gently jiggling him when bringing him down again. This was clearly a favorite game the child enjoyed for he'd laughed, giggled, and wiggled through out the trip. This distraction allowed enough pauses for the tiny group to make up as much distance as possible as they chased the giant woman down the mostly straight hall.

Suddenly without warning, Fox had stopped and turned her son towards a window. "Oooo, who's that?" She cooed at her child playfully as she held him in front of the glass. "Who is that?" From their position, the exhausted teens could only see the reflections of the two giants and figured it was another baby game. "We know who that is don't we?" Whatever the reason the sudden break was prompted, the teeny tiny gang had been grateful for the chance to reach her shoes.

One by one they had been beginning to tire, especially Hope whom had suffered from asthma when she was younger. Ron, being a track runner, and Justine, being a soccer player, had made it to one of the shoes first and coached for the others to hurry before the woman decided to move again. Jennifer was the third to make it, thanks to the stamina she developed through cheerleading, and Patrick, being more of a weight lifter than runner, came up right behind her. Heather had actually backtracked to grab a hold of Hope and half hauled her along so that she wouldn't get left behind. As Ms. Xanatos lightly chuckled at Alex's excitable reaction at the window, she never noticed or felt anything crawling onto her shoe. Each teenager scrabbled like crazy to get at the strap design on the side of the shoe in order to climb up them. The last two girls had barely gotten a hold before Fox began moving again. The sudden movement had the nearly knocked everyone off the shoe and had had the kids gripping tightly at the straps. Patrick instantly secured himself and grabbed Heather by her forearm and managed to hauled her and Hope up to the group. Ron scrambled over during the first step down to grab Hope in order to pull her to a better position and relive some of the weight of his friend's arm. They all held on for dear life, risking to move only in between steps when the foot they were riding was still, until they've all reached the crisscrossed black laces. There, they secured themselves as best they could and could only wait for the large woman to finally stop moving.

It hadn't been long before the mistress of the house reached her destination and continued on toward the balcony door. After opening the door and walking out into cool the night air, she stopped a few feet away from a stone statue. The statue was positioned with it's back facing them and had it's arms positioned above it's head. The stance was wide like it was about to pounce on something below it and made the flared web-wings give the illusion that the stone figure was much larger than it actually was. The tiny teenagers were only too happy that their unknowing scoffer was content to just stay put where she was.

"Okay…" Justin broke the silence after a few tense moments. "We're here." He lifted himself just enough to look at everyone without letting go of his grip on the shoelaces. "Now what?"

"We… We have to get her attention somehow." Ron said after a few deep breaths to slow his heart rate down. Running the equitant to the 100meter dash on top of playing the hero with Hope really took it out of him.

Heather, still shaken from the trip, also kept a tight hold the lace fibers. "M-maybe we could pinch her?"

"Something tells me at this size she won't feel it." Patrick stated as he looked up at the large ankle.

"Alright, Alex, it's almost sundown…" Fox suddenly spoke after watching the last raise of the sun begin to disappear. "Ready in 5… 4…" The happy little count down was met with excitable squeals and little grabby hands at the statue. "3… 2… 1!"

As the count down ended, the twilight at last ended and the sky was dark. A sudden crackling could be heard and from what the miniature group could see, the stone statue was splitting and crumbling. Yet instead of falling apart into a mess of rock and rubble, only small thin slabs began falling and or sliding off of the main structure. Underneath the crumbling stone was a green colored skin that rippled and shivered as if to shed the rock-hard cover off faster. Finally the entire figure just stood up, flinging pieces of stone in every direction and falling just short of spilling onto Fox's shoes. Thankfully the teens had climbed up a little high on the laces so that they could at least try and strap themselves down incase their ride decided to up and move out again. Also the new position gave them a slightly better view of the large creature now turned towards the giant woman and her child, with glowing white eyes. It was when the pint-sized group got over their initial shock that they realized what they had just witnessed. The awakening of a real live gargoyle.


End file.
